Genoa looks back to the 1960s for inspiration

Green space re-created on one of the main city roads as a fusion between past and present

Genoa authorities are firmly committed to fighting the decay and abandonment present in many areas of the city. Part of this push is the re-creation of the flowerbeds in the mid-section of the Viale Brigate Partigiane road leading from the hills in the north to the downtown quarter and the Ligurian coast.

The addition of 5,800 square metres of new green space comes with technological innovations and a smart irrigation system, even though the design itself was a throwback to the one that existed there in the 1960s.

Green axis that leads from the hills to the sea

The municipal website of the city is calling this intervention a ‘redesign’ and a ‘rebirth’, hinting at its return-to-the-roots appeal. Perhaps it is partly motivated by nostalgia, or partly by a growing sense that not everything was done badly or wrongly in the past, even if sustainability was not the buzzword it is today.

The works consist of the installation of three lots of flower beds, two of which have already been completed and unveiled. The third lot will be completed as soon as the risk mitigation and safety works of the Bisagno stream are completed and after the road network in the Brignole area is restored.

The original design was done in the sixties by the architect Luigi Carlo Daneri. The project, as already mentioned, aims to recover the shapes and designs of the 60s, with an important presence of medallions and floral strips, rich in different species in order to ensure a good aesthetic effect in all seasons of the year.

Naturally, things are also aligned with the realities and achievements of our own times

The current design has been adapted to the changes that have been made over the years, considering the layout of the road system which has imposed a stylization of some decorative aspects of the original project. The intervention also involved the construction of a structure on the waterproof bottom - a highly technological solution taken from the “green roof” systems that allow the creation of flower beds on the roofs of the buildings.

These technologies guarantee, in the face of a reduced thickness of soil, the optimal cultivation of plants, also making it possible to save considerable amount of water.

The work also represented an opportunity to renew city irrigation systems from a technological point of view. The programming and control system will be centralized on a dedicated cloud program, which will work by managing the irrigation sectors connected with specific radio links to then arrive at the use of a Wi-Fi connection. Water consumption will be optimized and losses will be monitored.